Andy Tow is set to leave his position as managing director at Chess Partner Services, less than a month since the sale of Avenir Telecom to Chess was completed.

Tow, who spent six-years as managing director of Avenir Telecom, is understood to have been placed on gardening-leave ahead of his official exit.

Cheshire-based Chess, a B2B fixed line distributor with more than 50,000 customers, refused to comment on the story.

Reasons for Tow’s exit – as yet confirmed – are not known.

Dealers have also been polled, via an online survey, into their experiences of doing business with Avenir. The anonymous poll asked for feedback on personal relationships with business development managers, response rates to commission queries and also allowed dealers to leave comments about the overall running of the business.

Chess acquired Avenir on June 11 – its 80th since 2001, insisting at the time Tow would remain as MD, heading up the newly formed Chess Partner Services division. The firm will officially rebrand on August 1.

The news also comes just days after Chess MD David Pollock reiterated to Mobile News during an interview (July 4) there would be no redundancies at the O2 and EE airtime distributor and that all 55 staff would remain, labelling them “a great bunch, with a great reputation.”

Tow joined Avenir in 2008 having left his role as MD at Data Select after less than a year. He replaced outgoing Tanny Jeffrey who joined Vodafone after more than 10 years as MD. Prior to Avenir, Tow also spent a year as CEO of now defunct distributor Unique Distribution (2007-2008) and 16 years as head of indirect sales at Vodafone (1985-2001).